Motorola DTC2000 Plugin

[justme]

I don't know if this is the most recent version or not. Since it turned out my cable company would not enable my serial port, so I stopped following this software. But since I've seen at least sperate 4 posts requesting this in the last two days, here is the only version I downloaded. No warrantees, no guarantees, and I will pull the attachment at anytime the author requests.

Any feedback from the people who downloaded this attachment? Is it working, or is it a older version that is likely to just cause confusion for newer users? I'm assuming it's working for some, since no one has posted otherwise. As I stated I can't test it myself, I was just trying to help.

Feel Free to PM me. This should help keep this thread clean so others can easily find the link.

[peterbasil]

The attachment above is not working for me. I know my serial port is enabled, however when I run the attachment above I am getting the project1 message box indicating that the carrier detects a changed state. I am trying to get this to work on an XP box.

[justme]

I don't know what to say. We need the author of the program for this one. I've gotten many responses from people who say it works for them. I'm just trying to fill in with providing it until the author's site comes back up. Anyone else here who can help?

[xcskwng]

This is a DCT2000 Serial Tuner plugin for Snapstream. It includes source code. There is information on the codes used to control the DCT2000. You can find more information on it here:

http://discuss2.snapstream.com/vb/sh...threadid=11082

Hope this helps for those looking for more info on controlling the DCT2000.

[justme]

Thank sxcskwng,
Hopefully this will help someone else pickup the slack until/if the author of the original plugin comes back/becomes active. If he doesn't then your info should provide the neccessary tools to farther develop this process. It's beyond my skills but now with the right tools maybe someone else can carry the torch into the future. Any volunteers?

[rleeson]

Does any one have the pin-out for the cable to connect the DCT2000 to a PC serial port?? Is it straight through or cross-over; does it need any of the control lines straped?

Thanks

[Orthogonite]

Originally posted by rleeson
Does any one have the pin-out for the cable to connect the DCT2000 to a PC serial port?? Is it straight through or cross-over; does it need any of the control lines straped?

Thanks

You need a standard RS-232 straight through cable, sometimes also referred to as an extension cable.

[Lumberjack]

Probably the wrong forum for this question, but if anybody can help it would be highly appreciated. Google found few threads for the 2224 and this one had the most info.

So I have a 2224 and just got TiVo. The serial port doesn't seem to be able to work however. From what I get from TiVo support and from some posts here it seems that I need to call Cox (my cable provider) and have them enable it. Does this sound right? Is there anyway else to enable it or test it?

Thanks,
Lumberjack

Edit: Cox support says that they don't use it so it's not possible to enable it, whatever that means.

[coppit]

[Stupid question deleted by clueless poster]

[snewman]

The original DCT2000 plugin works, but it keeps popping up a message box saying that the CTS has changed and I have to kill the application every time I change the channel.

The DCT2000Serial plugin is built as a DLL for SnapStream and won't work with Sage. So I took this one and hacked it into an EXE. This is a very crude hack and might occassionally change to the wrong channel.

I plan to eventually take the great work done by Jim Paris on his DCT app used for MythTV and port it to Windows. Jim's app will verify the channel changed correctly, turn on the box if necessary, etc.

In the meantime, the attachment works. I make no warranties about this app. It might blow up your machine or cause a meltdown. All I can tell you is, I'm using it to change channels on my box for the time being.

It does pop up a DOS window everytime it changes channels. I'll fix that in the next version.

[Redemption]

The plugin posted by snewman works great for me in the Comcast bay area (didn't even have to call my cable company).
Only question was, how do you specify which com (serial) port the application should use. I'm looking at getting a second STB so that I am not limited on which tuner (i have two) can view/record the higher end channels (HBO, showtime, etc).
If i can set the serial port, figured I can just add a second registry entry that calls on dct2.exe (after making a copy) and it would tune the second receiver plugged into my second serial port.
Am I way off base here?

[AndyS]

Originally posted by Redemption
Am I way off base here?

I hope you're not way off base because that's exactly what I want to do as well. I have two DCT2000s that I want to control from the same server.

FYI - If anyone is in the Cox Orange County, CA area - my DCT2000s have the correct firmware and the serial port is already enabled.

Andy.

[AndyS]

Originally posted by snewman
It does pop up a DOS window everytime it changes channels. I'll fix that in the next version.

Hate to sound pushy, but did you make any progress with the new version?

Andy.

EDIT: Oops! - thought your post was from 3/9. I guess I am being pushy!!

[snewman]

Hate to sound pushy, but did you make any progress with the new version?

Not pushy, I understand . Unfortunately between work and the demands of a new puppy, it's killed all my free time currently. I hope to have the beginings of something up soon.

If i can set the serial port, figured I can just add a second registry entry that calls on dct2.exe (after making a copy) and it would tune the second receiver plugged into my second serial port.

I think the limitation here is in the EXETunerPlugin.dll file. I know almost nothing about this DLL and can't find any documentation on it. What you would need is a way for Sage to indicate which Tuner should be changed. If this is already being done and someone knows of a parameter that's being passed, please let me know.

It certainly would be easy, from the exe perspective, to change the channel on a given port if we just knew which port needed to be changed.

[Redemption]

Originally posted by snewman
It certainly would be easy, from the exe perspective, to change the channel on a given port if we just knew which port needed to be changed. [/B]

SageTV lets you specify which plugin you want to use to change a channel if you specify that it's say tuner with cable box. Figured if the exe could be modified or a variable added to it to specify that one wanted to use Serial/Com port 2 instead of 1.
Figured I could just add in a duplicate plugin with a similar name and make an appropriate registry entry.

[AndyS]

I took a quick look at EXETuner.DLL.

From what I can see, EXETunerPlugin passes parms from SageTV to any application defined in the Registry. It simply reads the Registry for the command string, and inserts a single parm %CHANNEL% into the command string.

It's exactly what the docs say it does - no extra hidden features, and nothing else passed from SageTV as far as I can tell.

Others might be able to look more critically at the DLL - I just did a quick look, but it doesn't look promising

Andy.

[Crowdx42]

But you guys are saying that this exe will work with Comcast in the San Francisco Bay area? I have the DCT 2224 (I think it is) and it has the latest firmware etc, is this going to work with this box? I currently use USB-UIRT to change channels.
Patrick

[Redemption]

Originally posted by Crowdx42
But you guys are saying that this exe will work with Comcast in the San Francisco Bay area? I have the DCT 2224 (I think it is) and it has the latest firmware etc, is this going to work with this box? I currently use USB-UIRT to change channels.
Patrick

As long as comcast uses the same firmware and configuration in San Jose as they do where you are. I don't remember the firmware (it was one of the numbers listed I found on the MythTV Mailling list regarding using one of their plugins to control the stb), i'll snag it when I get home and post it. Mine's a DCT2244 as well. Thing I like most about this is how quickly it changes channels (have yet to see it foul up like my IR blaster on replay does on occassion).

[snewman]

SageTV lets you specify which plugin you want to use to change a channel if you specify that it's say tuner with cable box.

I don't have 2 tuners, so I didn't think about that. If it would let you add parameters to be passed to the exe, this idea would work. The problem I think you'll have with this is, when the DLL runs it's going to read the same entries from the registry to determine which exe to run and no matter how many tuners you have, the same command will always run.

I also took a look at the EXETunerPlugin.DLL. It seems to derive from TunerStub.DLL and both export the same 19 functions. I'm going to guess that TunerStub.dll is the base you need derive from in order to create a TunerPlugin. If we can figure out the Parameters and Return values for each of these functions, we might could create a different plugin to do what we need for multiple tuners.

Unless someone from Sage would be really nice and post the information necessary to create the plugin .

[Crowdx42]

Well I tried it on my DCT2244 and it doesn't change channels,, when I tried to open the exe file it just flashes open and then closes again, doesn't give a chance to see what is happening. BUT I have the com port 1 as the port the cable is connected to.
Patrick